Emily in France 🇫🇷 A Glimpse at My Grocery Shopping
Ce sera tout ?
When I was first learning French in school, we rehashed many of the same topics over and over again, year after year: when to use the imparfait and when to use the passé composé. How to conjugate irregular verbs. Pronominal adjectives. Prepositions.
But my favorite?
Situational vocabulary.
Picture this: you're twelve years old, and despite living firmly in the latte 90s, your textbook was published in 1981. Each chapter, Mireille and her friends guide you through their life in one of the smaller French cities. (Was it Montpellier? I feel like it was Montpellier.) They go shopping for chemises and chemisiers (the feminine of which is typically worn by men, and, aggravatingly, vice versa). They study at their pupitres with their cahiers and plumes. They go to cafés.
And they eat. Oh, lord, do they eat.
Even as a twelve-year-old, I was already fascinated by what the French made for their daily meals. And more than that, I loved the illustrations of all of the individual shops where items could be bought. Mireille had no A&P, no D'Agostino's. Instead, she had the fromagerie and the boucherie, the charcuterie and the poissonnerie and the primeur. Each shop was distinct and different, each manned by an expert professional.
I know, now, that chemises can be worn by both men and women, and I very rarely see women talk about chemisiers. I know, too, that very few students actually use the word pupitre for their school desk; instead, the word bureau is preferred, which is an all-purpose word for the sort of desk you find in an office as well as in a classroom.
But while France does indeed have supermarkets, it also retains its smaller shops, and of that, I am wholly grateful. Not only because if I wait patiently for other customers to exit, the poissonnier allows me to bring the adorable ball of fluff I'm currently petsitting into the shop to buy my pickled anchovies (can't say the same for the caissière at Carrefour!). Not only because when I ask the fromagère for a Saint-Félicien, she asks me how creamy I want it to be. (Answer? Very.)
But also because there's something just so... human about it. Something I've sorely missed since confinement.
Today, for example, the woman at the primeur decided to start a bit with me about setting my watermelon down on the counter while I continued my shopping. High comedy it was not, but I picked up on her sarcastic tone and played along, and it was a wholly enjoyable five minutes or so. It made me happy.
And frankly, if we're not doing things that make us happy... then what the heck are we doing on this little space rock at all?
What I'm Eating
The terrace at Petit Navire is one of my favorites, almost a year after my first visit. The cheese course above paired a raw milk Brillat-Savarin with carob honey and... wow.
Discover these treats and more on the blog this week. (And for more of my foodie finds, follow me on Instagram @emily_in_france.)
What I'm Writing
1. The Telegraph writes that it "looks, smells, and tastes as if it should be in a lavatory," while CNN reports it has "an easily identifiable aroma of decay." They're talking about andouillette, a tripe sausage hailing from France's Champagne region that's as divisive as it is beloved-by those who can stomach it. (Pun very much intended.) For Food & Wine.
2. From campgrounds to cabins to beaches, these are the perfect destinations in the DC area for getting back out there this summer. For Inside Hook.
3. With his spiky hair and in-your-face attitude, Guy Fieri took the Food Network by storm in the early oughts. Today, he's still visiting Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives on his show, and he's eaten more than his share of great burgers. Here are some of the best, for Mashed.
What I'm Reading
1. The flailing, self-destructive characters in A Visit from the Goon Squad afford a deftly wrought and keen lesson in empathy. My thoughts on the blog.
2. One unexpected upside of the pandemic's effect on restaurants? Long unsung sous-chefs finally getting their day in the spotlight. In Grub Street.
3. Comparing slavery and the Holocaust is like comparing the Pythagorean theorem and airplane armrest politics, but the Washington Post does offer an interesting exploration of how Germany coped with the repercussions of WWII and what America could stand to learn going forward.
A bientôt !